Financial Markets (2008) with Professor Robert Shiller

Financial institutions are a pillar of civilized society, supporting people in their productive ventures and managing the economic risks they take on. The workings of these institutions are important to comprehend if we are to predict their actions today and their evolution in the coming information age. The course strives to offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century.

  1. Finance and Insurance as Powerful Forces in Our Economy and Society

  2. The Universal Principle of Risk Management: Pooling and the Hedging of Risks

  3. Technology and Invention in Finance

  4. Portfolio Diversification and Supporting Financial Institutions (CAPM Model)

  5. Insurance: The Archetypal Risk Management Institution

  6. Efficient Markets vs. Excess Volatility

  7. Behavioral Finance: The Role of Psychology

  8. Human Foibles, Fraud, Manipulation, and Regulation

  9. Guest Lecture by David Swensen

  10. Debt Markets: Term Structure

  11. Stocks

  12. Real Estate Finance and Its Vulnerability to Crisis

  13. Banking: Successes and Failures

  14. Guest Lecture by Andrew Redleaf

  15. Guest Lecture by Carl Icahn

  16. The Evolution and Perfection of Monetary Policy

  17. Investment Banking and Secondary Markets

  18. Professional Money Managers and Their Influence

  19. Brokerage, ECNs, etc.

  20. Guest Lecture by Stephen Schwarzman

  21. Forwards and Futures

  22. Stock Index, Oil and Other Futures Markets

  23. Options Markets

  24. Making It Work for Real People: The Democratization of Finance

  25. Learning from and Responding to Financial Crisis, Part I (Guest Lecture by Lawrence Summers)

  26. Learning from and Responding to Financial Crisis, Part II (Guest Lecture by Lawrence Summers)